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The epicenter of the earthquake was approximately 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince.
On Saturday, a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti. Buildings collapsed into rubble, killing at least 304 people and injuring at least 1,800. Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he is providing assistance to areas where towns have been destroyed and hospitals are overwhelmed by new patients.
According to the US Geological Survey, the epicenter of the earthquake was about 125 kilometers (78 miles) west of the capital Port-au-Prince. According to reports, the poorest country in the hemisphere suffered extensive damage and tropical storms also swept in.
The Haitian Civil Defense Agency stated on Twitter that the death toll was 304, most of which were in the south of the country. Rescuers and bystanders were able to rescue many people from the rubble. The agency said the injured are still being taken to the hospital.
Henry declared the country into a one-month state of emergency and said that he would not seek international help until he knew the extent of the damage. He said that some towns were almost completely razed to the ground, and the government sent people in the coastal town of Les Cayes to help plan and coordinate response measures.
“The most important thing is to find as many survivors as possible under the rubble,” Henry said. “We learned that the local hospitals, especially the hospital in Les Cayes, are crowded with injured and broken people.”
He said that the International Red Cross and hospitals in unaffected areas are helping to take care of the wounded and called on Haitians to unite.
“The needs are huge. We must take care of the injured and broken people, but also provide food, assistance, temporary shelter and psychological support,” he said.
Later, when he boarded the plane bound for Les Cayes, Henry said that he wanted “organized unity” to ensure coordination to avoid chaos after the devastating earthquake in 2010, which was followed by as many as 300,000 earthquakes. , The aid slowly reached the hands of the residents. Be killed.
US President Joe Biden authorized an immediate response and appointed Samantha Bauer, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, as a senior official responsible for coordinating the efforts of the United States to help Haiti. The United States Agency for International Development will help assess the damage and assist in reconstruction. Biden said that he called the United States “a close and lasting friend of the Haitian people.”
More and more countries have provided help, including Argentina and Chile, which have expressed their readiness to deliver humanitarian aid. ? Haiti encountered adversity again,? Chilean President Sebastian Pinella said.
Among those killed in the earthquake was Gabriel Fortune, the former mayor and councillor of Les Cayes. According to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste, when his hotel Le Manguier collapsed, he died with several others.
Philip Butan, 37, lives in Puerto Rico, but visits his family in Les Cases every year. He said his mother was doing morning prayer when the shaking started, but he was able to leave the house.
He said the earthquake coincided with the celebration of the town’s patron saint, adding that the hotel may have been full and there were more people in the town than usual.
“We still don’t know how many people are under the rubble,” he said.
On the small island of Ile-a-Vache, about 6.5 miles (10.5 kilometers) from Les Cayes, the earthquake destroyed a seaside resort popular with Haitian officials, business leaders, diplomats, and humanitarian workers. Fernand Sajous, owner of Abaka Bay Resort, said on the phone that 9 of the hotel’s 30 rooms collapsed, but he said the rooms were empty and no one was injured.
“They just disappeared,” Sarrus said.
The people of Les Cayes tried to rescue guests from the ruins of the collapsed hotel, but as the sun went down, they could only find the body of a 7-year-old girl who was behind the facility.
“I have eight children and I have been looking for the last one,” Jean-Claude Daniel said in tears. “I will never see her alive again. The earthquake ruined my life. It took a child away from me.”
As reports about hospitals are overwhelmed, Haiti is battling a pandemic and lacks resources to deal with it. Just last month, this country with a population of 11 million received the first batch of coronavirus vaccines donated by the United States through a United Nations program for low-income countries.
Former Haitian Senator Richard Herve Fourcand rented a private jet to transport the injured from Les Cayes to Port-au-Prince for medical assistance. He told the Associated Press that Les Cayes’ hospital is already operating at full capacity.
More than a month after the death of President Jovenel Moise, the earthquake also occurred, throwing the country into political chaos. His widow Martine Moise tweeted a message calling on Haitians to unite: “Let us work together and unite.”
According to the Haitian Civil Defense Agency, a landslide caused by the earthquake blocked a major road connecting the heavily-affected towns of Jeremy and Lesques, which hindered rescue efforts.
Agency director Jerry Chandler told reporters that some of the structural damage included at least 860 houses destroyed and more than 700 damaged. Hospitals, schools, offices and churches were also affected.
The National Hurricane Center predicts that Tropical Storm Grace will arrive in Haiti later on Monday or early Tuesday.
Chandler said: “This may make the situation worse because the country is about to suffer the effects of two consecutive disasters, namely a magnitude 7 earthquake and an imminent storm.”
Humanitarian workers say that gang activity in Mattisan, a coastal area west of the Haitian capital, also complicates rescue efforts.
“No one can cross the area,” UNICEF Port-au-Prince spokesperson Ndia Gasek said by phone. “We can only fly over or take another route.”
Seck said that due to uneven Internet services, information about the death and damage in Port-au-Prince could not be delivered, but UNICEF plans to deliver medical supplies to two hospitals in Les Cayes and Jeremie in the south.
People in Port-au-Prince felt the shock, and many rushed to the streets in fear, even though there seemed to be no damage there.
Naomi Verneus, a 34-year-old resident of Port-au-Prince, said she woke up from the shock and the bed was shaking.
“I didn’t have time to wear shoes after I woke up. We experienced the 2010 earthquake and all I could do was run. Then I remembered that my two children and my mother were still inside. My neighbor went in and told them to go out. We Run to the street,” Vinius said.
Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey, said aftershocks may last for weeks or months. The largest aftershock to date is 5.2.
In this poor country, many people live in barren environments and are vulnerable to earthquakes and hurricanes. In 2018, there was a 5.9-magnitude earthquake, which killed more than 12 people. The 7.1-magnitude earthquake in 2010 damaged most of the capital and caused an estimated 300,000 deaths.
By Saturday night, the island experienced 4 aftershocks above 5.0 and 9 aftershocks above 4.0.
Haitian civil engineer and geologist Claude Prepetit (Claude Prepetit) warned that cracked structures are dangerous.
“It is expected that there will be more or less strong aftershocks within a month,” he said, warning that some “buildings that were severely damaged in the earthquake may collapse in the aftershock.”
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